The Context for Offsets

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The Context for Offsets

• Martin Hollands
• The Cambridge Centre for Conservation Policy

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The problem and what we are doing about it.

• We are still losing species, habitat, and
  ecosystem quality and function
• Amongst the reasons for this are conversion, and
  pollution from developments
• Many of the organizations involved in
  co-convening this event are trying to tackle the
  potential problems of ensuring development is
  sustainable
• Working with companies to strengthen corporate
  policies and practices
• Working with governments, MEAs and associations
  to tighten the regulatory framework
• Speaking out against developments seen as badly
  conceived
• Supporting the development of effective spatial
  planning

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(No Transcript)
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Landscape Level PlanningSide eventUNESCO,
IUCN, WBCSD, ICMM,CCCP6.30 on Monday 27th March
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The problem and what we are doing about it.

• We are still losing species, habitat, and
  ecosystem quality and function
• Amongst the reasons for this are conversion, and
  pollution from developments
• Many of the organizations involved in
  co-convening this event are trying to tackle the
  potential problems of ensuring development is
  sustainable
• Working with companies to strengthen corporate
  policies and practices
• Working with governments, MEAs and associations
  to tighten the regulatory framework
• Speaking out against developments seen as badly
  conceived
• Supporting the development of effective spatial
  planning
• All of these should reduce the potential for
  developments to have residual impacts but many
  still will, so we are also working on ways to
  offset any residual impacts

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Biodiversity offsets do not confer the right or
the justification to proceed with projects that
will have an unacceptable impact on biodiversity
Biodiversity Offsets should comply with
national and international lawsSo how do
offsets fit in with the existing Mitigation
Hierarchy ?
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Potential Impact

• Avoid
• Minimise
• Mitigate
• Rehabilitate
• Residual Impact
• Does it meet the required standard ?
• At each stage ?
• Overall ?

Offset
Dialogue Consultations Evaluation Decision on
the overall package
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How might offsets change the standards ?

• Currently the decision on whether the project
  will have unacceptable impacts is decided by
  the company, whether to proceed or not, and
  then the regulator
• The local community and broader stakeholders will
  feed into this
• The focus for offsets are from companies and NGOs
  that see that the bar set by legislation is too
  low they see that their social LTO, and meeting
  their company standards, will set a higher bar
  right through to fully offsetting the impacts
• What is being piloted will not weaken the
  legislative controls but it will have society,
  and regulators, presented with integrated
  packages that go beyond current legislation
• Legislation follows behind expectation